His attitude, though, echoes a popular sentiment… which to me means: Google is just one big misunderstood company.

Now, I’m not ready to pull out the world’s smallest violin for them quite yet… but being misunderstood has pro & cons for investors.

For example:

(1) They don’t supply earnings guidance. I’m not sure misunderstanding can get more dangerous than this for investors… as evidenced by the fact that GOOG’s only two earnings misses in the last few years were actually beats. (Here and here. Without these, GOOG would be assaulting $700.)

(2) Google operates with the long term in mind. Wall Street runs in the short term.

(3) And now, everyone — even big time money managers — think Google is chaotic and about to collapse under its own disorganization.

Hardly. They are a model for the future.

Want more evidence? Here’s a clip from a Silicon Alley Insider piece on Yahoo:

Was at an investment conference last week and was speaking to the tech analysts, a wicked-smart guy.

He said two very cool things I’ll share:

(1) Video is Next Big Thing

(2) Virtual worlds (like Second Life) are the Next Internet

I can’t agree with him more.

Video may be red hot right now, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

And — while using a virtual world today feels like using the Internet in 1994 on a 1200 baud modem — if you’ve never ventured into a virtual place, the only thing I can say is: The sci fi writers had it right!

"Online advertising spending is widely predicted to continue its strong growth even if a US economic downturn squeezes the advertising sector as a whole. Indeed, pressure on companies to cut costs if the economy softens could even hasten the switch in spending from traditional media to more targeted and measurable digital forms."

Here’s the real difference between Barron’s and FT.com reporting:

Barron’s superficially uses the woes at Countrywide Financial to support its thesis… while FT.com uses actual data from Countrywide Financial:

"Among US mortgage lenders, Countrywide has, for example, increased its share of online ad spending from 21 per cent to 55 per cent in the last 12 months, according to Sanford Bernstein."